


Dark Blood

by lifetheuniverseandeverything42



Series: Mainline [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (Acting Parent), (and then slash), Abused Draco Malfoy, Abused Harry, Abused Harry Potter, Abused Severus Snape, Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Azkaban, BAMF Minerva McGonagall, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Character Death, Child Abuse, Diagon Alley, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter Friendship, Draco Malfoy Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Everyone Needs A Hug, Friends to Lovers, Gay Draco Malfoy, Gay Harry Potter, Gay Neville Longbotttom, Gay Panic, Good Draco Malfoy, Good Severus Snape, Harry Angst, Harry Potter Needs a Hug, Heavy Angst, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Magically Powerful Draco Malfoy, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Major Character Injury, Male Slash, Mental Health Issues, Mentor Severus Snape, Mild Smut, Minor Character Death, Not Canon Compliant, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Number Four Privet Drive (Harry Potter), Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Panic Attacks, Past Character Death, Past Child Abuse, Past Suicide Attempt, Past Torture, Past Violence, Powerful Draco Malfoy, Powerful Harry, Powerful Harry Potter, Room of Requirement, Sarcasm, Sarcastic Draco Malfoy, Sarcastic Harry Potter, Sarcastic Severus Snape, Self-Harm, Self-Harm Culture, Self-Harming Draco Malfoy, Self-Harming Harry, Self-Harming Harry Potter, Self-Hatred, Severitus | Severus Snape is Harry Potter's Parent, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Severus Snape Needs a Hug, Shell Cottage (Harry Potter), Sirius Black Dies, Slash, Snarky Draco Malfoy, Snarky Harry Potter, Snarky Severus Snape, Spinner's End, St Mungo's Hospital, Suicidal Draco Malfoy, Suicidal Harry, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Suicide Notes, Teen Angst, Wandless Magic, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-01-05 20:16:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21214445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifetheuniverseandeverything42/pseuds/lifetheuniverseandeverything42
Summary: When Draco goes storming into a rarely-used dungeon classroom to hide from Death-Eater rantings, the last thing he expected to find was Harry Potter bleeding out on the cold stone floor. Nevertheless he does, and what he decides to do next will change everything.





	1. The Not-So-Empty Empty Classroom

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter characters (they belong to her ladyship, J.K. Rowling) but this story is my own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so this is Severitus in that Snape becomes a father-figure for Harry, so Good Snape  
Also Draco/Harry so Good Draco and m/m slash.  
Also Trigger Warnings for brief mentions of child abuse and scenes of self-harm and suicide - including suicidal thoughts.  
Major sarcasm that only British Teens can manage. 
> 
> Please comment to tell me what you like and dislike, I love to hear from my readers.  
And Enjoy!

Draco crept out of the Slytherin common room and into the dungeons gloomy maze of corridors, he simply HAD to get away from all the Dark Lord _worship_ currently going on amongst too many of the older years. He couldn't keep this up for much longer. Even with his godfather's help - without which he wouldn't have lasted five minutes - teaching him so much in secret: occlumency, additional potion classes, wandless magic and duelling training. He fumed quietly in his head, shielded by his mental barriers and the silence of his surroundings, as he strode determinedly without direction: away...

He reached almost without meaning to, an old haunt of his: a long-disused classroom tucked away in a mess of shadowy corridors that most (even armed with Lumos) never dared to explore. As he approached the cleverly hidden door, he noticed it was ajar and a dusty breeze shifted across his pale skin as he walked up to the darkened wood. Alarmed - although he would never admit it aloud - and annoyingly curious, Draco breathed a silent huff of frustration and drew his wand. He placed his hand upon the solid heavy door and quietly eased it open, slipping softly through the crack he made into the even-darker room beyond. His eyes squinted to see anything as the dust and shadows weaved their perplexing dance in front of his eyes, the only light was pale and dim, seeping in from the deep porthole window of the lake at the far end of the room. As he rounded the last of the abandoned desks and broken chairs, he noticed something tantalisingly colourful in the seemingly grayscaled chamber; then his brain filled in the rest of what his eyes were seeing unblinkingly.

There was red, bright scarlet that caught the eye and practically screamed for his attention, but there was also a dark red accompanied by a gold that together just as loudly said 'Gryffindor.'

However it was not these colours, no matter how dazzling in the greys of the moon-lit classroom; that had Draco stood there, wand drooping at his side and his mouth agape. It was the splash of unruly black hair atop a worryingly white face, framed by a pair of round heavy glasses which immediately identified this body as Potter. Harry Potter. Harry...

Harry! Harry bleeding; bleeding far too much and far too pale for Draco's liking. He had to do something, and quick.

Uncaring as to his robes or knees, he knelt hurriedly at the teen's side lifting cloth to find the source of the bleeding - never thinking it could be the same infirmity which once afflicted him.

So when he dragged up one blood-soaked sleeve he was not expecting to find two ragged deep cuts piercing skin and blood vessels alike. 

"Oh Harry, what have you got yourself into this time?" he asked the unconscious Gryffindor lying almost in his lap. Then he set about putting pressure on the wounds, briefly checking the other wrist and upon noting the same slashes there too included it in his ministrations. Doing all that he could with limited knowledge only acquired in self-exposure, Draco crudely stabilised the Boy-Who-Lived then cast a levitation charm and floated the other boy out of the classroom. As quickly as he dared (with a such a basic and concentration-based charm as 'Wingardium Leviosa) in the interests of both Potter's and his own continued survival - should a Death Eater's child catch him saving the 'enemy's' life - Draco swiftly crossed the short stretch of hazy passages to his head of house's office and quarters. 


	2. Healing of the body, not the mind.

Anxiously, he knocked on the sturdy door with one fist, his wand still tightly clutched in the other with earnest concentration.

"Uncle Sev!" his whispered urgently, eyes and mind frantically scanning the hallways around him for movement. "Let me in! Quick!" he pounded on the door once again.

Within an instant it flew open in his face to reveal the darkly towering figure of his godfather, his eyes angry yet betraying his confused concern.

As his gaze locked onto the bundle of blood-stained robes and messy hair that Draco still levitated in the dark corridor, the harsh words that had been brimming on the Slytherin teacher's lips faded and his expression morphed into one of shock.

"Come in, quickly." he ordered Draco, fear leaking into his tone as he stepped aside to allow their passage; sweeping the silent and shadowed corridor with a Stealth Sensoring spell and finishing off with a Imperturbable Charm and Protego Totalum over the door. 

Draco watched his hurried movements with growing concern as he heard some incantations he did not recognise but felt the settling of protective wards within his magic. 

"Godfather," he whispered, clearing his throat and searching for the words to explain - but Snape cut him off.

"No time for that now, let me have him." 

Wordlessly, Draco vacated his post at Harry's side having deposited him onto his godfather's worn and comfortable couch. 

Snape immediately flew to the unconscious teen's side (much as Draco presumed he had, when he'd first come across him) and cast a diagnostic Seardetrimenta. Turning swiftly to face his godson, he began to issue instructions in a low anxious tone even as he raked Harry's body with healing charms and stabilising spells: "I need you to get me a Wound-Cleaning Potion from my store cupboard, its in a purple vial on the top shelf to the right. And several of my strongest Blood-Replenishing Potions from the chest in the corner of my personal stores - the large dark red bottles, at least three... Now Draco!" he barked, then pivoted back to easing the Gryffindor - who was tiptoeing frighteningly close to death - into a more upright position. "Come one, Potter." he muttered under his breath between hastily uttered spells of Facilita Otium (for pain relief) and Tergeo (to remove the drying blood), gasping a little as the severity of the wounds was revealed in all their horror... "Don't do this to me, fight dammit, fight." 

"I'm not sure he wants to, Sev." Draco murmured as he returned with arms outstretched, proffering the requested (demanded) potions.

Ignoring his godson's quiet statement, Snape hurriedly applied the Wound-Cleaning Potion to the gashes he had already doused in Tergeo and spelled the contents of several vials of Blood-Replenishing potion directly into Harry's - no, _Potter's_ \- stomach. Sitting back on his heels in front of his crooked sofa, he surveyed the unconscious young man; his colour was a little better, his pulse and breathing much stronger and steadier too. 

The easy work done, Severus sighed and moved sloth-like to crumple exhausted into his armchair by the fire. Draco from his spot on his customary ottoman across from him, watched both godfather and Boy-Who-Lived with equal apprehension. 

"Well?" his godfather asked him quietly, after his breathing had slowed and his pulse was no longer through the roof (quite an achievement, considering they were in the deepest dungeons of Hogwarts). At Draco's perplexed look, he exploded in fear-driven exasperation: "What the _hell_ happened!?!"  



	3. Decisions to be made

"I don't know Sev." Draco answered him hurriedly, putting up both hands in front of him to pacify his godfather. "I went into the old spellcraft wing, I think he was in classroom 11 or something. He was just... Lying there." Draco trailed off, looking pale. Snape bit his lip and placed one hand on his godson's shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked him softly.

"Shouldn't you be asking him that?" Draco replied jerking his head towards the still form of Harry that he somehow could not take his eyes off.

"Since he is not concious, it would be rather difficult to get a reply. And anyway, right now, I'm concerned about you."

"Sev," Draco begn, brushing off the comforting hand and standing to walk a distance from the fire's warmth. "He just - He nearly. He tried to..." He could not get the words out.

"First of all, we do not know the circumstances as of yet." Snape reminded him, but Draco interuppted.

"Yeah, because those wounds_ really _look like anything other than..." He voice failed him and he refused to meet his godfather's eyes.

"I'll admit it is likely, and extremely worrying." Snape murmured, half to himself, then louder with a bitter smile added. "But happily he has the two people most able to help him in this, right here."

"Whatever." Draco muttered, knowing how much his godfather detested such moodily teenagerish language and deliberately using the offending word anyway. Severus studied him from his battered armchair in the glow of the fire and quietly asked: "Is this disturbing you?"

"What?" Draco responded hotly, unsure whether to reply angry that his godfather thought he was bothered by the incident or upset that he had so little faith in him. Apparently he was not occluding as he should, as Snape raised one fearsome eyebrow at him in stony silence. Draco hung his head and sighed. "He just... Its just that. Harry..." He couldn't enunciate his chaotic thoughts enough but Snape seemed to understand.

"Have you - felt any urges?" he questioned gently.

"No!" Draco told him, "I'm almost a year clean, why would I relapse now?"

"Does this," his godfather gestured to the sleeping body very much still present, "Not bring back some of those feelings, at all?"

"Does it for you?" Draco countered, a little defensively - crossing his arms in unconcious protection.

"Not right at this moment," Severus replied after a moments consideration, "But I suspect I will need some aid in sleeping soundly tonight."

Draco relaxed his anzious grip on his arms at that admission, drooping like an unwatered flower to plonk himself on the arm of the sofa on which Harry lay.

"There's no shame in it." Snape told him, seriously and soothingly.

With a lump in his throat and thoughts full of regret, Draco whispered: "Tell that to him, godfather."

"I will." Came the solemn reply, as in unison two pairs of eyes drifted along the expanse of bared skin littered with old scars of varying ages, lit up almost artistically in the firelight. "But will you help me?"

Draco looked up quickly and met his godfather's calm gaze with his uncertain one. "What?"

"I think you can be a great help in this."

"What do you mean? Surely he will return to his house in the morning and that will be that."

"Draco, use your head." Snape scolded him with a wolfish smile. "This cannot get out. It must be kept a complete secret. I will inform Dumbledore and McGonagall, because they have a right to know; but it can go no further. He must heal - mind and body, shrouded in secrecy. Which means he will not be returning to his housemates company for some time."

"But they would be of much more help than I would." Draco protested.

"And tell me, which Gryffindors have suffered such an ailment that they could possibly relate nor aid his recovery."

"You don't have to have experienced such things to be of help."

"Draco. Stop being such a Hufflepuff, you don't have to befriend him. Just don't let him kill himself." Snape sighed as his godson flinched.

"I might as well." Draco whispered after a minute or so of silence. "Befriend him I mean." He looked anxiously over at his godfather, who simply quirked an eyebrow at him. Swallowing he continued, "I think that, actually, we have a lot in common..."


	4. Awaken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Precursor...

When Harry came to, the world had stopped spinning. He blinked several times, trying to clear the fog from his mind, and pulled himself into a half sitting position propped up by his elbows.

He was in a room he didn't recognise - still Hogwarts, that he was sure of - but it was warm and comfortable space.

The walls that were visible - not hidden behind huge towering bookshelves or wall hangings or the fireplace or the door - were dark but of the easily identifiable Hogwarts stone, not that that was how Harry knew he was still home... The colour palate was clearly consciously selected and consisted of earthy browns, which contrasted nicely with the oak that seemed to be everywhere, highlighted by the occasional and controlled use of black in the form of shimmering black detailing on lustrous wall hanging (that seemed to depict some sort of Merlin related scene) and black iron in the table legs and black leather arms on the bright green sofa he was lying on. Wait a minute!

Harry sat bolt upright and stared in shock at the gorgeous emerald green of the velvet his legs were resting on, tangled up in a soft green and brown blanket. Harry clutched at the soothing almost fluffy material as his eyes widened, he gazed around the room anew; this time noting the lack of windows, the lowish ceiling and the faint smell of potion brewing that hung in the air. Astonished and speechless his eyes wandered back to the woven tartan of the blanket covering him; his stunned stare swept across the fabric until it noticed a section of embroidery in glistening jet black thread: SS. Harry mumbled the letters over and over to himself as he swung his legs off the side of the settee, his fingers brushed the elegant script as his mind (his cursedly slow mind) finally connected the dots...

"Severus Snape!" he cried, leaping up just as the door softly opened behind him.

"Indeed." said a voice that Harry knew hauntingly well. Snape. He spun quickly to face his professor and tormentor, his face pale and eyes wider than ever.

"And what are you doing up? You should be resting." His teacher told him abruptly. If Harry had been more alert, he would have detected the lack of usual snark in his tone; but as it was, he brought a weary hand to his flushed forehead.

"I-" he began, words suddenly seeming too complicated to exude.

"Just get back to sleep, Harry." Snape told him firmly, pushing (as gently as he could) the young teen back onto the sofa and settling the blanket Minerva had gifted him so very long ago around the Gryffindor's shoulders. "We can talk more when you're feeling better."

For some reason, Harry flinched at those words although he couldn't remember why they scared him so much.

"Sleep Harry." Snape murmured softly, stroking his head and flicking his wand to dim the candles once again. So Harry slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter, my overall word count as a user on ArchiveOfOurOwn is officially over 60,000. In exact: 60007.


End file.
